Bimbo Manuel’s ‘Philomena’: When country prostitutes with the wellbeing, dignity of citizens

By Anote Ajeluorou
JUST how do citizens of a country fall into the different classes that make up its population? Why are some so down below the barrel wallowing in poverty and misery and some are so high up above and living opulent lives? Who decides where some fall into in the social divide? What invisible hand makes these categorisations possible? And why are those in the lower rungs destined to be that way without a chance of social mobility? How did they get stuck there and then still see others in similar situations as their enemy that they battle to the death? Why can they not form some sort of redemptive alliance to rescue themselves from their oppressors, those who run the show and ruin their lives?
These are some of the underlying questions ace actor Bimbo Manuel tries to provide some illumination in his play, Philomena: Interview with a Prostitute (Quramo Publishers, Lagos; 2022). The play shines a light on the tenuous bond that exists among people who suffer from common afflictions like poverty and lowly station in life and how they try to navigate their seemingly impossible situations.
The play is built around three main characters – Philomena who is forced by life’s circumstances to turn to prostitution after a promising future was cut short by a careless slip and a boy whose family recruits a doctor to hang a stigma on her that would blight her entire life but for the small reprieve of a son in that encounter; Area, a frustrated schoolteacher who finds redemption in alcohol and a journalist (Wesley) who just lost his job and wanders into the prostitute’s den for some solace and strikes up a relationship with the duo. But it’s Area who puts the situation of the trio nicely in two of his many profound ruminations:
“This is where we find ourselves, a happy evening in a sombe tinge to the copper skies, far from tired shuffle of feet hurrying home and impatient revs of and honks of homeward bound traffic. Happy in our own little company of misfits and dysfunctional professionals… a failed journalist, an expired prostitute and… me, a frustrated teacher. Here we find ourselves. Complete recipe for a profound conversation.”
And in another instance, he goes cynical with the description of the trio and how their combination is a reflection of the country greatness!:
“Perversion! Here we are, three most unlikely people, stuck in the same space… entirely by choice… a prostitute in her last laps, a brilliant journalist who got his sack on the phone, struggling to justify his existence and me… a teacher unable to go to school today because there has not been any salary in the last three months… masters degree in biochemistry, PhD in view before frustration set in and I found succour in the green bottle… and you say there’s no greatness in this country?”
Of course, when Wesley loses his job as a journalist with his newspaper he’s at the brink of falling apart, but he instinctively thinks to do something extraordinary to reclaim his lost position and swag by interviewing the prostitute Philomena. But when Area mocks him about where he’d publish his interview, it dawns on Wesley that the interview will have far wider ramifications beyond the narrow confines of his newspaper where he no longer works anyway. For Wesley, interviewing Philomena is a way of getting at the underbelly of society’s rot and the forces that have structured it the skewed way it is rather than a properly habitable place for everyone, a place of misery for the vast majority and opulence for the few who hold the levers of society.

But Area gets in the way of Wesley in his last journalistic act of penance while he’s trying to convince Philomena of the good the interview will serve. Wesley then decides to tie up and gag Area from interfering with the interview. Area and Wesley tangle but eventually subdues Area. But Philomena intervenes on behalf of Area and he’s freed. When the interview gets underway, it turns out it’s Area who gets the better perspective, and Wesley grudgingly yields him space to spar with Philomena. Their familiarity with each and hit-and-miss liaison over the years help this process, as Area begins to learn afresh the intricate layers that the life of Philomena is made of – like the vast many, she’s a victim of power in her past life that would shape her current lifestyle and station in life.
Like many hurting and stranded in the lower rungs of life, Philomena is just a victim of life’s viciousness. She once had ambition and future plans, but one slip sent her spiralling to the bottom of the pit, from where she has been unable to rise, and finds herself condemned to the life of a prostitute using her beer parlour to amplify her sex trade.
Manuel’s Philomena is a classic play on life’s cynical reality. The best efforts do not always yield desired results. Area, a teacher, typifies what happens to Nigeria’s public schools where those who manage them are starved of their legitimate dues. The gatekeeping job of the journalist is made doubly hard because the reality of a shambolic economy denies him the resources to do his job, and he’s thrown out in spite of his brilliance at his job. The society finds ways to shame its best and the mediocre who have mastered the art of subterfuge have a free ride to power and access to the best in life.
Manuel successfully deploys beer parlour language – banter, wise-cracks, raw, explicit language to get the dialogue going. It’s all you will find in a bar with prostitution thrown in the mix. It’s a delightful drama piece to read. Putting it on stage will be its ultimate dramatic triumph.
Although Manuel is careful not to bring in the usually obvious polarity in society or be preachy in Philomena, having masked it by playing up society’s victims, it’s implied how the prostitute Philomena, the frustrated schoolteacher Area and the failed journalist Wesley arrive at the junction of their miserable lives. The unasked question is: who crafted the rules that keep them where they find themselves without hope of redemption? And Area cynically says: “and you say there’s no greatness in this country?” to underline how awful things are. His definition of a great country having these category of downtrodden people can only be read as a paradox, but it is what it is – dysfunctional society in need of mending!